What can data do for philanthropy? (Photo from Alliance Magazine) I had the privilege and fun of co-editing with colleagues from The Foundation Center the special issue of Alliance Magazine, "What can data do for philanthropy?" The issue is out to subscribers and online now. In addition to editing, which I was involved in
EdSurge EdSurge is a commercial news source focused on education technology. Investors include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Washington Post Company, New Schools Venture Fund, and Paul Allen & Company (among others). It's a good example of philanthropists providing investment capital right alongside business investors in a
Trying to solve problems One of the unfortunate realities for foundations is that they don't have enough money to do what they want to do. I know, I know everyone on the fund seeking side of the table reads that sentence and thinks "Oh, cry me a river," about poor
Networked - By Lee Rainie My review of Lee Rainie's book Networked has been published over at SSIR. Take a look. And read the book.
indiegogo Data dividends Have you heard of the design company Threadless? You may know it as a t-shirt company. Or the former home of the Obama campaign's current CTO, Harper Reed. Or you may never have heard of it. But if you work in foundations as a program officer, grants manager,
advocacy Give to candidates, not to nonprofits "I'm not giving any more money to nonprofits this year. I'm not volunteering for nonprofits anymore this year. Instead, in this very, very crucial election year, I'm giving as much money as I can to candidates I support, and as much time as
A bevy of buzzwords - Impact Investing GIIN. ESG. SRI. GIIRS. TBL. CSR. BOP....... With acronyms like that it's clear there is room for a helpful glossary of terms focused on impact investing and the "conscious economy." This came to me via a #SOCAP email Below is an excerpt - the full list
learning How do foundations learn? Here's a sample of conversations I've had in the last five days: - A call with a potential client about developing a network knowledge strategy for their grantees - Discussions with a foundation about their strategic planning RFP - Exchange with a magazine editor about a
Interactive information Three little thoughts on interacting with information about communities, philanthropy, CSR, doing good - 1. Intel's Corporate Social Responsibility department lets you log onto their website and create your own report of their activities. Check it out at http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/corporate-responsibility/csr-report-builder.
Philanthropy Buzzword 2012.6 - Resilience (Photo from Free Press website) Resilience telegraphed itself as a buzzword back in 2011. I waited until July to post it, to see if it had any legs. Back in December and January, here's what folks were saying: Shareable ended 2011 by wishing folks a "resilient New
501c3 Philanthropy Buzzword 2012.5 - Social welfare organizations The Citizens United decision plus the Presidential election plus Super PACS and anonymous giving through 501(c) 4s suddenly has a lot of people itching to get the public to distinguish between subsections of the IRS tax code. This strikes me as about as likely as getting people to stop
Philanthropy Buzzword 2012.4 - "Sensemaking" Lisa Philp suggested Sensemaking as a buzzword back in December 2011. I've been on the lookout and she's right - it's everywhere. From Beth Kanter on using Facebook. A list of blog posts on collaboration and sensemaking from the Hybrid Vigor Institute. As a
Philanthropy Buzzword 2012.3 - data scientist I already called "data" as this year's first buzzword. Those who make sense of it, visualize it, and re-imagine how to use it are also worthy of a shout out. Here's a great description of what data scientists do. I love the euphonious name
alexanderberger Data - the new element (image courtesy of Knight Foundation graphics staff) Data. Data. Data. It's exciting to see so much being done with and said about data in philanthropy these days. Some key conversations to check out if you haven't already: This discussion on the opportunities for 990 data and
ReCoding Good - Digital Public Goods Here's the latest update from the work on ReCoding Good - we tried to make sense of the concept of Digital Public Goods, benefited mightily from d.School facilitation, and tracked some additional thoughts on Tumblr.
Radical Openness By Jason Silva for TED Global. "RADICAL OPENNESS" - for TEDGlobal 2012 by @Jason_Silva from Jason Silva on Vimeo. RADICAL OPENNESS - An anthem on the power of IDEAS created by Jason Silva at Therapy Studios. Follow me on Twitter: @jason_silva | http://twitter.com/jason_silva
Influence of evaluation and evaluating influence Just a few days ago I noted the engaging quality of an interactive evaluation report put out by the Knight Foundation. I called it "the most fun evaluation report you've ever read." I wasn't being snide, I meant it (although the bar is admittedly
One minute, please Big Data. It's gotta be a buzzword, doncha think? I'll get to that, but in the meantime I wanted to share this visual, created by DOMO, of how much data gets created, sent, moved every minute of the day. A friend emailed it to me -
dataphilantrhopy Opening 990 Data Carl Malamud, who would win an "open data genius award" from me*, is proposing to move the boulders that stand in the way of open, machine readable, free access 990 data. Check out the proposal to the Knight News Challenge (category "data"). Look at the price
digitalpublicgoods Digital Public Goods (?) On Thursday we held the fourth in our series of #ReCoding Good charrettes at Stanford. The topic - digital public goods. The question - do such things exist and, if so, how do they matter in the new social economy. Here are links to the resources for the charrette and
The most fun evaluation report you've ever seen The Knight Foundation does #DataVis again - check out this "report" on their grant to Macon, Georgia for a social game focused on community building.
Impact investing, philanthropy and the new social economy In May the #ReCoding Good project looked at philanthropy, impact investing and the new social economy. Here's the recap on the charrette from the ongoing "From the Field" series in the Stanford Social Innovation Review. This month we're looking at Digital Public Goods -
mayorschallenge Where good happens "What's up this weekend?" I asked, reaching around my friend to the sugar packets while trying to stay out of the way of the long line of Friday-excited coffee purchasers behind me. "Volunteering. Hacking." She said. "Where?" "DMV." She bent
Data Philanthropy On Monday I posted a brain dump on how data can change philanthropy. (I hope you'll add to that list of ideas. Feel free to put other examples up as well) But the real change coming from data is much bigger - because it's everything in
How can data change philanthropy? I've written about this at length (search this blog for "data"). So here are some ideas in short form that consider all kinds of data - trend, legitimacy, performance, outcome, digital exhaust - and how they can change philanthropy: * Pattern finding - aggregated revenue and organization
